Ramesh and his son Rohan Sippy backed out of their commitment to produce Ghosh's lavish spectacle Alladdin with the Big B playing the genie.
But ask Sujoy if he's devastated.
"Not at all!"" the young director finally speaks up, "I 've nothing to fear as long as God is on my side. And by God I mean Mr Bachchan.
He's genuinely proved to be a genie in my career. He's with me through this project, and so's the rest of my cast and crew. If you've the support of those who matter, it hardly matters if certain setbacks occur. Life isn't always fair. Shit happens. So what?"
The Big B known to be very close friends with the Sippy, not just through his own association with Ramesh Sippy in Sholay, etc but also through Abhishek's very close friendship with Rohan Sippy has, as usual, decided not to let his personal relations colour his professional judgemeent.
The Big B will stand by Sujoy's project. "Sujoy is young ambitious and totally mad. He has dreams," he says.
With an immense support system behind him Sujoy decided to produce Alladdin himself. "Why not? I've the confidence. And I've the team behind me. So yes, I'm producing Alladdin on my own."
As for the Sippys they remain uncharacteristically tightlipped.
After some prompting Rohan Sippy finally said, "Since we're in the process of redefining our arrangements with Sujoy it wouldn't be appropriate to comment at this time."